Polishing pad



April 16, 1935. (Jin. LANG OLISHING ,PAD originallFiled July 7, 195s INVENTOR dywvwQ/L ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 16, 1935 POLISHING PAD John Henry Lang, Detroit, Mich.

ApplicationJuly 7, 1933, Serial No. 679,277 A Renewed March 11, 1935 2 Claims.

vThis invention relates to polishing pads `and particularly to polishing pads. adapted to be rotatively driven. f Rotative pads employed for bufling and polish ing the painted or varnished surfaces of vehicles attains fromlthe construction `hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein: l a

. Fig. lis a rear view of the improved pad,

Fig. 2 is a diametrical sectional view of the pad taken upon the line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a View vsimilar to Fig. 2 but showing two of the improved pads combined to form a polishing wheel,

Fig.- 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of parts forming a mounting for the pad.

In these views, the polishing element of the pad comprises a circular piece of sheep skin I and the fleece 2 thereof. Preferably said element is skin -(with fleece attached), of aggregate circular form, radially abutting as indicated at 2d.

Thus thepad can be built of relatively small pieces, which would otherwise be wasted. Said pieces may be held in proper assembly, by a circular canvas backing sheet 3, of somewhat lesser radius than the skin I, glued or otherwise tightly fastened to and against said skin.

These segments are further fastened together, substantially centrally of the pad by a grommet 4, set into a central opening of the pad and having a considerably larger contact with the front face of the pad than with its rear face.

` Preferably there is further employed a reinforcement 5, formed of sheet metal or the like v f and having several suitably spaced, slightly ilexysubstantially one half the radius of the supporting-sheet. l

To afford the arms I5, a requisite slight iiexibility Without unduly decreasing their area, par- (Cl. 15--230) k ticularly at their outer ends it is preferred to progressively increase the width of said arms as they extend outwardly.'

The described pad may be attached to any suitable rotative support. As illustrated, the support comprises a face plate 'I having Aa hub l3, into which iscentrally lthreaded astud 9y having a socket-forming head I'iy witha cam slot I I laterally openingfrom its socket. From said'slot, a groove I2 extends interiorly of said head to the outer en d thereof.

The front face of the p-ad is engageable Aby a clamping disk I3 having a central plug I4 insertable through the'grorninet 4 into the socket of the head I6, the groove I2, accommodating a pin I 5 on said plug during such insertion. 'When thev pin I5 has thus been entered .in the slot II, a slight rotation of the disk I3 will clamp the pad securely between said disk and the face plate l. In use the described pad is rotated at aselected speed, while the' polishing element is pressed against a surface to be polished. The

pad flexes, as it rotates to accommodate itself to major depressions or projections of the surface engaged, and it is at times desirable toincline the pad to thesurface so as to give effect only to the outer or peripheral portion of the pad.

Excessive flexibility isdetrimental and it has been found desirableto alford the central portion of the pad only a slight flexure, while affording a much larger freedom of curvature to the outer portion.

This result is very perfectly achieved by the n described pad, in which the sheet 3 and arms S, largely limit flexure of the central portion of the pad, the area outward saidl arms having considerably greater freedom, and region outwardof the sheet 3 having a Vstill greater freedom.

By thus differentially reinforcing the pad in regions of different radius, it has proven feasible to largely .increase the useful life of the pad over present practice.

Preferably the skin I is untanned, it having been found that tanning renders such skin unduly flexible and decreases resistance of the pad to wear. k

The invention is presented as including all such modifications and changes as come within the scope of the following claims.

What I claim is: 1. A rotary polishing pad comprising a substantially circular polishing element, formed of `fluffy material, a flexible substantially circular supporting sheet for said element, of lesser ra- 10 tured, and a grommet engaging said central apertureand holding the specified parts of the pad in assembly.

"2. A rotary polishing pad, as set forth by claim ments, of aggregate circular form, and said supporting sheet being formed of corresponding segments, and said flexible reinforcing sheet holding said segments in unitary circularassernbly.

JOHN HENRY LANG.

1, said polishing element being formed in seg- 

